3 great things about Steelers extending Ben Roethlisberger’s contract
By Tommy Jaggi
The Steelers will have Ben Roethlisberger for one more season. Here are three great things that come with his new extension.
Ben Roethlisberger is officially coming back for another season. News broke early Thursday afternoon when Teresa Varley of Steelers.com released a statement from both Ben and general manager Kevin Colbert that the future Hall of Fame quarterback would be returning to Pittsburgh in 2021.
In order to get this done, the Steelers were forced to extend and restructure Roethlisberger’s contract – something I have been adamant about not wanting them to do. Fortunately, the numbers of the new deal are as good as anything we could have expected, and there is grounds for hope – both in 2021 and into future seasons. Here are three great things about Big Ben’s new contract extension:
The extension was very team-friendly
This was the part that I worried about most in a Ben Roethlisberger return. While I clearly voiced that I believed he would give the Steelers their best chance in the 2021 season, I worried about how his new deal would handicap this team in future seasons. Fortunately, the numbers really played in favor of the Steelers.
According to Ian Rapoport of NFL Network, Roethlisberger did indeed take a pay cut of his from $19 million base salary to $14 million. From there, the Steelers were able to drop his base salary down to just $1.075 in 2021 while the remaining money will likely get spread out through the 2025 season. Ben’s total cap number for the upcoming season is now $25.9 million, which is a far cry from the $41.25 million he was previously set to count against Pittsburgh’s cap.